Corporate catering software
for clients who order again and again.
Corporate catering isn't one-off private parties — it's the same companies, ordering weekly and monthly, with multiple contacts, purchase orders, net-30 terms and strict office dietary rules. LightCater is built around the company account: repeat-order history, fast re-quotes, invoices suited to net terms, a calendar for concurrent daily deliveries, and dietary notes on every BEO.
If most of your book is recurring corporate accounts — office lunches, board breakfasts, all-hands, client events — LightCater keeps each company, its contacts and its full order history in one place, so you re-quote in minutes, invoice on the client's PO and net terms, run several drop-offs a day off printed BEOs, and keep allergen counts straight. From $39/month, 14-day free trial, no credit card.
14-day free trial · no credit card · e-signature included
Why corporate catering breaks a one-off toolkit.
Tools built for weddings and private parties assume every booking is a fresh, single event. Corporate catering is the opposite: the same companies, ordering on repeat, paying on terms, feeding offices with rules. That mismatch quietly costs you time and margin.
Repeat clients, multiple contacts
A corporate account isn't one person — it's an office manager who books, an EA who confirms headcount, and accounts payable who pays. And they come back every week. When the company, its people and its order history live in scattered files and inboxes, you start every re-order from zero instead of last time's order.
Purchase orders & net-30 invoicing
Corporate clients don't pay on the day. They issue a PO, expect the number on the invoice, and pay on net-15 or net-30. A tool that assumes deposit-then-balance on the event date has nowhere to put the PO and no way to show you which company invoices are open and how far past terms they've drifted.
High-volume drop-offs, concurrent
Three office breakfasts before nine, two conference lunches at noon, a staffed on-site reception at six — all on one weekday, across the city. Miss an arrival window and a whole office notices. A single-event calendar and hand-built delivery notes don't hold up at that volume.
Strict dietary & allergen rules
Corporate headcounts arrive with hard requirements — vegan, gluten-free, halal, kosher, named nut allergies — for dozens of people at once. Get a count wrong and it's a safety incident and a lost account. Requirements buried in an email chain aren't good enough for the kitchen.
Last-minute headcount changes
"Make it 95, not 70 — the regional team is joining." Two hours out. Now the prep, the packing, the delivery quantities and the invoice all need to change together, and you need a record of the change so the higher bill isn't a surprise to accounts payable.
The account you never grow
Corporate accounts are worth chasing precisely because they repeat — but only if you can see the pattern. Without the company's order history in one place, you can't spot the client who's gone quiet, suggest the standing weekly order, or prove the account's value at renewal time.
What good corporate catering software actually does.
Vendor-neutral — hold this checklist up against any tool you're weighing, including the generic CRM, the spreadsheet or the one-off event app you've outgrown.
1 Organises around the company account
The record should be the business, with multiple contacts, delivery addresses and every past order underneath it — not a single event that forgets the client existed the moment it's delivered.
2 Re-quotes from order history
For a repeat account you should start from what they ordered last time, change the date and headcount, and send — turning a recurring weekly or monthly order into minutes of work, not a rebuild.
3 Invoices on the client's terms
It must carry a purchase-order number, invoice against it, and track deposits, part-payments and outstanding balances so you can see which corporate invoices are open and overdue on net-15 or net-30.
4 A calendar built for concurrent deliveries
Several drop-offs and on-site events on the same day should sit on one shared calendar, each with its own delivery address and arrival window, so nothing collides and drivers know the run.
5 Allergen counts on the run sheet
Dietary and allergen requirements should be summarised on each BEO with counts and prep notes, so a large office order with vegan, gluten-free, halal and allergy needs is unambiguous to the kitchen.
6 Right-sized, not enterprise bloat
A busy caterer with a corporate book shouldn't pay for property-management suites or recipe-costing modules. Look for something quick to set up, priced per user, and focused on the order-to-invoice job.
The company account, wired to every order.
LightCater puts the company at the centre and connects it to the quotes, invoices and BEOs that run each delivery. Here's how it maps to the checklist above.
- Company & repeat-client CRM. Each account holds its contacts, delivery addresses and a full history of past orders — so anyone on the team can pick up a corporate relationship without digging through inboxes.
- Fast quotes for recurring orders. Start a new order from the client's last one, adjust date and headcount, and send a branded proposal in minutes — the standing weekly lunch becomes a two-minute job.
- Invoices suited to net terms. Record the PO number, invoice from the same event record, and track deposits, balances and what's outstanding — so open corporate invoices and their terms are visible at a glance.
- Calendar for concurrent deliveries. Every drop-off and on-site event sits on one shared calendar; each carries its own BEO with delivery address, arrival window, on-site contact and equipment.
- Dietary notes on every BEO. Requirements logged in planning are summarised on the run sheet with counts ("6 vegan · 3 GF · 1 nut allergy") and prep notes, so the kitchen reads each office order cleanly.
- Change-tracked headcounts. Update the count once and the BEO and invoice recalculate together; the audit log timestamps the change, so a bumped bill is never a surprise to accounts payable.
Setting rates for a new corporate account? Read the guide on how to price a catering event, then build the recurring order straight from the company record.
A spreadsheet or one-off tool vs purpose-built.
| Capability | Spreadsheet / one-off event tool | Purpose-built (LightCater) |
|---|---|---|
| Company account with multiple contacts | No — one contact per booking, retyped each time | Yes — contacts and addresses under the company |
| Full repeat-order history | Scattered across files, threads and past invoices | Every past order under one account record |
| Re-quote a recurring order in minutes | No — rebuilt from scratch every week | Start from last order, adjust date + headcount, send |
| Purchase-order number on the invoice | A manual note you hope you don't miss | PO recorded and carried onto the invoice |
| Net-15 / net-30 balance tracking | Manual columns; overdue is easy to miss | Deposits, balances and what's outstanding, per account |
| Concurrent daily deliveries on one calendar | Rows you read carefully and hope you sorted right | Shared calendar; each drop-off its own BEO |
| Allergen counts on the run sheet | Buried in an email chain the kitchen can't see | Summarised on the BEO with counts + prep notes |
| Headcount change updates bill + run sheet | Re-typed in several places, no audit trail | Update once — BEO + invoice recalc, change logged |
| E-signature for master agreements | Needs a separate e-signature tool at extra cost | Built in — no per-envelope fee |
| Multi-language client documents | DIY per-language templates | EN / DE / FR / IT / ES with one click |
| Right-sized for a corporate caterer | Either too thin, or enterprise features you'll never use | Focused, per-user, quick to set up |
| Direct cost | Free spreadsheet, or a heavier suite with add-ons | from $39/month Self-Service or $59/month with 24/7 support |
LightCater is a light-tier tool by design — it does not cover PMS/POS integration, multi-property management or recipe costing.
The parts that make a corporate book run.
Catering CRM
Keep every company account, its contacts and full event history in one place — tied to the proposals, contracts, invoices and BEOs that run each order.
Explore →Event invoicing software
Invoice against purchase orders on net terms, track deposits and balances, and see which corporate invoices are still open at a glance.
Explore →Guide: pricing a catering event
Work out per-head pricing, margins, deposits and taxes before you set the rate for a new recurring corporate account.
Read the guide →Corporate catering software — common questions.
What is corporate catering software?
Can it handle purchase orders and net-30 invoicing for corporate clients?
How does it deal with recurring and repeat corporate orders?
Can it manage several corporate deliveries on the same day?
Does it track dietary requirements and allergens for office headcounts?
How much does LightCater's corporate catering software cost?
Run your corporate accounts on one clean system.
Set up a real company account, re-quote last week's order, invoice it on a PO, and print the BEOs for tomorrow's deliveries — all from one record. Decide after you've used it. No credit card to start.
See the full feature list or compare plans and pricing.